Raymond S Niaura

Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Professional overview

Dr. Raymond Niaura is a psychologist and an expert on tobacco dependence and treatment, as well as substance use and addiction to alcohol. Dr. Niaura researches the biobehavioral substrates of tobacco dependence, including factors that influence adolescent and early adult tobacco use trajectories. He also evaluates behavioral and pharmacological treatments for tobacco cessation, with a particular interest in cessation in disadvantaged population to address public health disparities in tobacco-related burdens of illness and disability.

For eight year, Dr. Niaura was the Director of Science and Training at the Schroeder Institute (SI) for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at the Truth Initiative, where he also supervised the pre- and post-doctoral training programs. Dr. Niaura has previously taught and conducted research at Brown University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Georgetown Medical Center, and the School of Public Health at University of Maryland. He was also a former President of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and is  a Deputy Editor of the Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

With grants from the National Institutes of Health, numerous foundations, and private industry, Dr. Niaura has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles, commentaries, and book chapters, including the book The Tobacco Dependence Treatment Handbook: A Guide to Best Practices.

Education

BA, Psychology (First Class Honors), McGill University, Montreal, Canada

MS, Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

PhD, Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Honors and awards

Research Laureate, American Academy of Health Behavior (2009)

University Scholar Award, McGill University (1979)

Areas of research and study

Alcohol, Tobacco and Driving Policies

Evaluations

Health Disparities

Substance Abuse

Tobacco Control

Publications

Publications

Development and reliability of the lifetime interview on smoking trajectories

Dopamine D4 receptor gene variation moderates the efficacy of bupropion for smoking cessation

E-cigarette awareness, use, and harm perceptions in US adults

Erratum : Online social networks and smoking cessation: A scientific research agenda (Journal of Medical Internet Research (2004) 6:3 (e34))

Interventions to address chronic disease and HIV : Strategies to promote smoking cessation among HIV-infected individuals

A national mass media smoking cessation campaign : Effects by race/ethnicity and education

A randomized trial of internet and telephone treatment for smoking cessation

Accuracy of a brief screening scale for lifetime major depression in cigarette smokers

Application of functional neuroimaging to examination of nicotine dependence

Characteristics and predictors of readiness to quit among emergency medical patients presenting with respiratory symptoms

Food and drug administration regulation of tobacco : Integrating science, law, policy, and advocacy

Modeling the future effects of a menthol ban on smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths in the United States

Online social networks and smoking cessation : A scientific research agenda

Positive reactions to tobacco predict relapse after cessation

Quit attempts and quit rates among menthol and nonmenthol smokers in the United States

Tobacco use

Chapter 4. Nicotine Addiction: Past and Present

Effects of nicotine withdrawal on verbal working memory and associated brain response

Measuring smoking-related preoccupation and compulsive drive : Evaluation of the obsessive compulsive smoking scale

Menthol and non-menthol smoking : The impact of prices and smoke-free air laws

Relationships of personality and psychiatric disorders to multiple domains of smoking motives and dependence in middle-aged adults

Sex differences in TTC12/ANKK1 haplotype associations with daily tobacco smoking in Black and White Americans

A prospective examination of distress tolerance and early smoking lapse in adult self-quitters

Adolescent tobacco use and substance abuse treatment outcomes

HIV & smoking in India